Audiophile speakers that rock well

Thats the first time in 35 years I've heard avoid the L100's.Live long enough...........must be the ears....shoes?YMMV,Bob

I appreciate all the responses.when I used the phrase "rock the house", volume has a lot to do with it, but not everything. It's that live feeling that I am looking for. A number of speakers do this fine, as I noted in my original question, with audiophile approved recordings...not so many I have found can also do it well on the typical R&R recording.I want it both ways which I understand is not easy to get, either in speakers (or in life). I'm interested in hearing from people that really do feel that with their speakers they have their cake, and they are dining on it as well.

GLR

Rather than spending $3k on a pair of monitors, perhaps spend half of that (if not more) on a sub (even better, 2 subs). This approach lets you customize the low-end volume and crossover to your room and taste, yet maintain the imaging of great pair of monitors.

To surrender to notion that audiophile speakers can only do rock with just good recordings is not logical or accurate. Yes a lot of them actually can't. Since the genre has a lot of crappy recordings, doesn't mean we can't create systems that breathe some life into them. Yes these recordings can sound good on a boom box or car stereo and sound like hell in an "audiophile setup". However, please do not buy into the notion that you can't have your cake and eat it too. In other words there are components and speakers out there can put some air, separation, depth, and life into these type of recordings. Will it even the score with the good recordings? No way, but it also won't, as many audiophile put it, "expose all the flaws". Who wants a system that exposes flaws in their favorite music or recordings? Again, there is plenty of stuff out there the can bring some life to the poor recordings. Just have to know where to look.

monitor sized speaker
all the audiophile tricks
rock the house
without bleeding my ears
that live feeling

You are describing my Green Mountain Audio Europas. They were the first time- and phase-coherent speaker I ever heard, and also the first to properly recreate an intangible "something" from live shows that I hadn't heard any other speaker do. They have surprisingly little dynamic compression, and they get plenty loud for the hard rock/metal/hard electronic music I often listen to. They pull off the counter-intuitive trick of revealing many recording flaws, while NOT making those flaws intolerable to listen to. They also were the first speaker I ever heard properly reproduce the comb filtering of a distorting multidriver guitar amp.

Unfortunately, the Europa is no longer made, although it will occasionally show up for sale on Agon. GMA is currently making other speakers in your price range, however, all of which share the same time- and phase-coherent design principles of the Europa.

As good as the Europa is, adding a subwoofer to fill out the lower frequency range was still a significant benefit. Unless you're listening in a very small room, I'd recommend that at least demoing a subwoofer in your setup to see how you like it.

www.greenmountainaudio.com